Pokémon Go Eevee evolution: How to evolve Eevee into Umbreon, Espeon, Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon with new names

How to evolve Eevee has proven to be one of the bigger talking points in Pokémon Go so far.

In the classic Pokémon games, Eevee can evolve into different typing varieties based on the use of special items, its happiness level, moves it has available and even the time of day.

With Candy in Pokémon Go, the way you evolve Pokémon is much simpler, and as such, you cannot use the tried-and-tested method of using one of three elemental stones to turn Eevee into Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon.

How to evolve Eevee into evolutions Umbreon, Espeon, Vaporeon, Flareon and Jolteon

Here's how Eevee evolutions work. If you choose to evolve Eevee without any meddling - by feeding it 25 Eevee candy - then it'll turn to one of the below five types at random.

However, players have discovered a trick that allows you to target any of Espeon, Umbreon, Flareon, Jolteon or Vaporeon, by renaming it in one of the following ways:

Rename Eevee as Sakura to evolve into psychic-type Espeon

Rename Eevee as Tamao to evolve into dark-type Umbreon

Rename Eevee as Rainer to evolve into water-type Vaporeon

Rename Eevee as Sparky to evolve into lightning-type Jolteon

Rename Eevee as Pyro to evolve into fire-type Flareon

Important note - the trick only works once per evolution type, so make sure you choose Eevees with the best CP values before you evolve them into the type you want.

Gen 2's Umbreon and Espeon also have a second evolution method. Walk your Eevee as a Buddy for 10km, then evolve it either during the night (Umbreon) or day (Espeon) and it'll turn into the desired evolution.

Note you specifically need to walk 10k and earn two Candies in the process, have Eevee still as your Buddy when evolving for it to work, and be either day or night during the game itself for it to work (thanks to Daviebruce72 on reddit for clarifying).

Since the naming trick only works once per evolution type, this appears to be a useful way to get a second Espeon or Umbreon with some reliability.

What you need to know about Eevee Evolution names in Pokémon Go

Why Sakura, Tamao, Sparky, Rainer and Pyro? The original three are the names of the Eevee brothers from the Pokémon television show, who meet with Ash and the gang in episode 40 to show off their respective Eevee evolutions, with Sakura and Tamao appearing later on in the series.

Once you have called your Eevee into one of the above names, you should quit and reload the app to double check the name change has taken place, which is important considering the servers can lean to be on the unreliable side.

Note that while plenty of users have had success with this method - and that it's been confirmed by developer Niantic itself at this year's San Diego Comic Con - there are a handful of cases where it hasn't worked every time. Some say the trick will only work on the first time you evolve the creature, while others might have caught fowl of server issues not renaming their successfully first time, so be sure to check before you try.